Late yesterday afternoon, the opening crew of Le Grand Bistro & Oyster Bar, Robert Thompson's new French restaurant at 1512 Curtis Street, assembled in the kitchen to get a taste of executive chef Sergio Romero's menu, which Thompson calls "everyday French comfort food."

Le Grand, he says, "is not trying to do anything new or groundbreaking." Instead, insists Thompson, "We're trying to achieve pleasure and enthusiasm by perfecting the French classics, offering good wines at an approachable price and maintaining the integrity and essence of French cuisine by refusing to resort to modern spins."

Thompson, who, along with his ex-wife, Leigh Jones, opened (and subsequently closed) Brasserie Rouge, one of the best French restaurants this city has seen, says that Le Grand is the "recreation of Parisian bistros and brasseries from times past." This is a restaurant, he continues, "that takes us back to an era when eating mussels and frites, a great plate of cheese and drinking a half-liter of wine wasn't a special event but an everyday occurrence."

Come Monday, when Le Grand opens to the public, you can get a real taste of the mussels and frites -- and drink yourself into a stupor -- but I took the liberty of hijacking the kitchen yesterday, snapping food shot after food shot to give all you habitues a sneak peek of what's to come.